Canyon Spectral:ON vs Commencal Meta Power 29 Real World Comparison

[LUCKYMULLEN]

I wanted go do a real world comparison between a Canyon Spectral:ON and a Commencal Meta Power 29.
I am going to give details on my experiences with both bikes and companies including the purchasing process, shipping, communication, customer service and obviously how the bikes ride compared to one another good and bad.
Hopefully this will let potential buyers of either bike know what to expect and what to look out for etc, I will post more more information as I get a chance to ride the bike more.

 

[dirt huffer]

Very interested in hearing what you think of the Canyon. It's a bike I looked at very closely but never had a chance to ride (unfortunately)

I've only delt with Commencal USA and i have to say, their customer service was top notch. I've had to call them several times with questions, and the guys have been nothing but positive and helpful.

I've only emailed Commencal Europe once to get a paint code for my Meta Power. I wasn't sure if they would provide it, but to my surprise the responded back within 12h with a paint code.

I think going direct is the way to go. The savings is phenomenal

 

[Gary]

I'd put my lifesavings on Commencal's customer service being a million times better.
and the bikes too subjective to call.

When are you planning on riding these bikes in the Valley?

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

I'd put my lifesavings on Commencal's customer service being a million times better.
and the bikes too subjective to call.

When are you planning on riding these bikes in the Valley?

You're not too far off the mark, the Canyon has been down the valley and performed really well, just got the Commencal to come so I can give a sort of comparison.

I just wanted to let people know how I found everything with both as they are buy direct but you won't be surprised with my experiences with Canyon.

 

[Gary]

Y U gots 2?

bikes so similar i mean?

 

[Gary]

Ps. i'll be down a few days next week if you're free?

 

[njn]

Looking forward to the reviews.

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

Y U gots 2?

bikes so similar i mean?

No buddy,
as I type this I have none. The Canyon has been returned and the Commencal should be here in the next few days, that's why I haven't mentioned much in regards to a direct comparison yet.

 

[patdam]

Very interested in hearing what you think of the Canyon. It's a bike I looked at very closely but never had a chance to ride (unfortunately)

I've only delt with Commencal USA and i have to say, their customer service was top notch. I've had to call them several times with questions, and the guys have been nothing but positive and helpful.

I've only emailed Commencal Europe once to get a paint code for my Meta Power. I wasn't sure if they would provide it, but to my surprise the responded back within 12h with bbbba paint code.

I think going direct is the way to go. The savings is phenomenal

I have the canyon. My expérience about the technical assistance on France:
1) I have solicitate information about walk mode, cause i feel it inefficient (i have not the DI2).
I just wanted to know what is the exactly proper functioning. Several contacts, nobody answered, they ask me to explain at each time how exactly working my bike. To finish they say i need to return my complete bike. in reality that is the normal functioning. Bad point
2) i have received my bike with scratch on saddle (i have purchased an used test bike). i ask if i can purchase a new saddle at preferential price proposed on the site "buy with new bike". they refuse. another bad point.
I have hesitate between canyon and commencal. i have chose the canyon cause of adjustable geometry (shock absorber position) and special offer on test bike has finally convince me. I appreciate the bike, not the canyon service and i do not speak about the fight for they shipping it

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

OK, so I have received my Commencal Meta Power 29 and have had it out once so far but at least I can give people a comparison so far.
Ordering the Canyon was super easy in the UK, I used PayPal to take advantage of the interest free credit (more on that later), no hassle and within 8 hours I was emailed to say the bike had been shipped (ha ha),
The Commencal was trickier as I had to lay in Euros and PayPal and my bank were giving a poor exchange rate and were charging for the transaction, I ended up using Transferwise and saved £110 against the previous payment options. There was a delay of a day whilst payment was being made which always causes a bit of worry when transering money but as soon as Commencal recieved the payment into their account, the telephoned me to say that they would proceed with shipping which I thought was a nice touch.
So with Commencal I paid for the bike on Tuesday and the bike was delivered to my door in the UK on Monday, 6 days to ship an e-bike from Andorra to Scotland, awesome!
Unfortunately, the box from Commncal had been in the wars, it arrived at my door already fully open, no paperwork, box ripped and bashed to bits. I tried to refuse delivery from Fedex but the courier said to sign as damaged and that the box had been on its side (not standing up as it should have been). When I pulled the bike out, there was paint chips on the frame, the disc rotors were bent, the rear inner tube was burst and the box holding the battery was crushed a bit.
Not a good start and I am in dialogue with Commencal at the moment regarding these issues.
Now, as far as Canyon go, the bike box is amazing, it was delivered on its own pallet and apart from some paint damage around the headtube from assembly, the bike was perfect.
The delivery was anything but. I received a tracking number from Canyon straight away, after 2 weeks the bike hadn't moved, I emailed Canyon and they said no worries, it takes time to check as it is ebike. Another 2 weeks past and I had more fobbing off from Canyon so I contacted PayPal with my concerns, I tried numerous times to cancel my order but kept getting the same lies from Canyon. PayPal agreed with me that after 5 weeks of the bike not moving and Canyon failing to respond to their enquiries that the item was now classed as not delivered. This went on for 6 weeks for the 'in stock' bike, and then the bike arrived at my door. I had been through many different members of staff at Canyon and had different responses ranging from the 'no worries, you will love the bike', to 'we agree this is not acceptable' to being ignored altogether.
At the end of this period and due to Canyons lack of communication my payment for the bike had been cancelled and then it got really ugly.
Within a very short period I had emails and phone calls leaving messages threatening debt recovery agencies and associated costs etc. As Canyon wouldn't reinstate my original credit agreement I was left with a choice of pay in full within 7 days or return the bike.
I can appreciate them wanting to be paid for the bike and I offered to do this, what was appalling is the fact that the customer service department were now able to call and email me daily, whereas when the bike was delayed they would delay answers and lie.
I decided that due to the experience with Canyon, I didn't want to take the risk of having to deal with them for a warranty issue and could no longer trust the company so I returned the bike with 160 miles on it.
The bike (Canyon Spectral:ON 7.0) was amazing to ride and I will do a comparison against the Commencal soon.

 

[2unfit2ride]

You returned a bike that had been used, under what grounds? Not fit for purpose? Good luck with that.

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

You returned a bike that had been used, under what grounds? Not fit for purpose? Good luck with that.

I was given the option to return the bike as Canyon messed up the payment and wouldn't facilitate another payment option,
The bike is already away to Canyon who arranged the collection etc.

 

[dirt huffer]

Direct order bike companies accept returns all the time. In fact, Commencal has a "second hand" section on their website they resell them at discounted. It's just part of business

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

Direct order bike companies accept returns all the time. In fact, Commencal has a "second hand" section on their website they resell them at discounted. It's just part of business

I think they have a 30 days ride and return period thing going, Canyon also have an outlet for used bikes.

 

[patdam]

OK, so I have received my Commencal Meta Power 29 and have had it out once so far but at least I can give people a comparison so far.
Ordering the Canyon was super easy in the UK, I used PayPal to take advantage of the interest free credit (more on that later), no hassle and within 8 hours I was emailed to say the bike had been shipped (ha ha),
The Commencal was trickier as I had to lay in Euros and PayPal and my bank were giving a poor exchange rate and were charging for the transaction, I ended up using Transferwise and saved £110 against the previous payment options. There was a delay of a day whilst payment was being made which always causes a bit of worry when transering money but as soon as Commencal recieved the payment into their account, the telephoned me to say that they would proceed with shipping which I thought was a nice touch.
So with Commencal I paid for the bike on Tuesday and the bike was delivered to my door in the UK on Monday, 6 days to ship an e-bike from Andorra to Scotland, awesome!
Unfortunately, the box from Commncal had been in the wars, it arrived at my door already fully open, no paperwork, box ripped and bashed to bits. I tried to refuse delivery from Fedex but the courier said to sign as damaged and that the box had been on its side (not standing up as it should have been). When I pulled the bike out, there was paint chips on the frame, the disc rotors were bent, the rear inner tube was burst and the box holding the battery was crushed a bit.
Not a good start and I am in dialogue with Commencal at the moment regarding these issues.
Now, as far as Canyon go, the bike box is amazing, it was delivered on its own pallet and apart from some paint damage around the headtube from assembly, the bike was perfect.
The delivery was anything but. I received a tracking number from Canyon straight away, after 2 weeks the bike hadn't moved, I emailed Canyon and they said no worries, it takes time to check as it is ebike. Another 2 weeks past and I had more fobbing off from Canyon so I contacted PayPal with my concerns, I tried numerous times to cancel my order but kept getting the same lies from Canyon. PayPal agreed with me that after 5 weeks of the bike not moving and Canyon failing to respond to their enquiries that the item was now classed as not delivered. This went on for 6 weeks for the 'in stock' bike, and then the bike arrived at my door. I had been through many different members of staff at Canyon and had different responses ranging from the 'no worries, you will love the bike', to 'we agree this is not acceptable' to being ignored altogether.
At the end of this period and due to Canyons lack of communication my payment for the bike had been cancelled and then it got really ugly.
Within a very short period I had emails and phone calls leaving messages threatening debt recovery agencies and associated costs etc. As Canyon wouldn't reinstate my original credit agreement I was left with a choice of pay in full within 7 days or return the bike.
I can appreciate them wanting to be paid for the bike and I offered to do this, what was appalling is the fact that the customer service department were now able to call and email me daily, whereas when the bike was delayed they would delay answers and lie.
I decided that due to the experience with Canyon, I didn't want to take the risk of having to deal with them for a warranty issue and could no longer trust the company so I returned the bike with 160 miles on it.
The bike (Canyon Spectral:ON 7.0) was amazing to ride and I will do a comparison against the Commencal soon.

I will not enter in details, but it is approximative same story for the purchase of my canyon. To finish after several weeks with "it will ship tomorrow", i have cancelled the order. the next morning somebody call me to try to find agreement, I said i want to receive the bike before the end of week to maintain my order. 2 day after i receive it. I have not any regret today cause i appreciate a lot the bike. But i hope i never needs they in future for an technical problems.

 

[BelgianTriple]

OK, so I have received my Commencal Meta Power 29 and have had it out once so far but at least I can give people a comparison so far.
Ordering the Canyon was super easy in the UK, I used PayPal to take advantage of the interest free credit (more on that later), no hassle and within 8 hours I was emailed to say the bike had been shipped (ha ha),
The Commencal was trickier as I had to lay in Euros and PayPal and my bank were giving a poor exchange rate and were charging for the transaction, I ended up using Transferwise and saved £110 against the previous payment options. There was a delay of a day whilst payment was being made which always causes a bit of worry when transering money but as soon as Commencal recieved the payment into their account, the telephoned me to say that they would proceed with shipping which I thought was a nice touch.
So with Commencal I paid for the bike on Tuesday and the bike was delivered to my door in the UK on Monday, 6 days to ship an e-bike from Andorra to Scotland, awesome!
Unfortunately, the box from Commncal had been in the wars, it arrived at my door already fully open, no paperwork, box ripped and bashed to bits. I tried to refuse delivery from Fedex but the courier said to sign as damaged and that the box had been on its side (not standing up as it should have been). When I pulled the bike out, there was paint chips on the frame, the disc rotors were bent, the rear inner tube was burst and the box holding the battery was crushed a bit.
Not a good start and I am in dialogue with Commencal at the moment regarding these issues.
Now, as far as Canyon go, the bike box is amazing, it was delivered on its own pallet and apart from some paint damage around the headtube from assembly, the bike was perfect.
The delivery was anything but. I received a tracking number from Canyon straight away, after 2 weeks the bike hadn't moved, I emailed Canyon and they said no worries, it takes time to check as it is ebike. Another 2 weeks past and I had more fobbing off from Canyon so I contacted PayPal with my concerns, I tried numerous times to cancel my order but kept getting the same lies from Canyon. PayPal agreed with me that after 5 weeks of the bike not moving and Canyon failing to respond to their enquiries that the item was now classed as not delivered. This went on for 6 weeks for the 'in stock' bike, and then the bike arrived at my door. I had been through many different members of staff at Canyon and had different responses ranging from the 'no worries, you will love the bike', to 'we agree this is not acceptable' to being ignored altogether.
At the end of this period and due to Canyons lack of communication my payment for the bike had been cancelled and then it got really ugly.
Within a very short period I had emails and phone calls leaving messages threatening debt recovery agencies and associated costs etc. As Canyon wouldn't reinstate my original credit agreement I was left with a choice of pay in full within 7 days or return the bike.
I can appreciate them wanting to be paid for the bike and I offered to do this, what was appalling is the fact that the customer service department were now able to call and email me daily, whereas when the bike was delayed they would delay answers and lie.
I decided that due to the experience with Canyon, I didn't want to take the risk of having to deal with them for a warranty issue and could no longer trust the company so I returned the bike with 160 miles on it.
The bike (Canyon Spectral:ON 7.0) was amazing to ride and I will do a comparison against the Commencal soon.

Hi, still waiting for the review on the Commencal ;-)

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

Hi, still waiting for the review on the Commencal ;-)

I will do one soon, I have not had the time as I have been out riding the bike whenever I have the chance.

 

[Eddy Current]

From what I read and heard: The commencal suspenssion is better on rough terrain, the Spectral is a more snappy accurate handling for flowy trails, single track.

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

From what I read and heard: The commencal suspenssion is better on rough terrain, the Spectral is a more snappy accurate handling for flowy trails, single track.

From my experience, it may be down to the size of the bike, the Spectal:ON I had was a size large, with the mullet wheel set up and was great on tight, twisty and technical terrain, my Meta Power is a size XL and was a full 29er with a coil shock, it is more stable over rough terrain at speed but isn't as poppy for jumps and pre jumping into features, setting the Commencal up as a mullet bike has turned it into a more nimble feeling machine on steep twisty descents and has helped slacken the head angle and lower the BB which I really get on well with now, no adverse pedal strikes due to this change as much of those are down to poor pedalling timing and technique anyway.
One thing I did notice is that rear suspension seems to almost lock up when you use the rear brake and try and rudder the bike down and around very steep techy corners, the canyon didn't suffer from this, nor have any of my acoustic bikes so it may be down to the suspension configuration on the Commencal. The bike feels like it has a lot more than 140mm of travel out back and I am riding it in terrain that was suited to 200mm travel Dh bikes only a decade ago so that speaks for itself really. I still look back on the Canyon as a great bike to ride though and would have liked to have had a shot of a size XL to compare how nimble it was but as spoken about before, Canyon were wank, and a few fellas in our riding groups have had numerous frames, motors etc replaced within a year of use. Commencal don't seem to clever with sending out paint, bolts or parts that were damaged or faulty from new however Jungle looked after me under warranty for a defective KS dropper and had it back to me within 5 days. I have since had an issue with the W011 error code and Commencal weren't helpful, turned out to be a faulty speed sensor that I had to replace myself and I also had to pay for the diagnostic on the motor too even though the bike is under a year old. Looks like nobody is perfect then.

 

[Gary]

The Commie is a single pivot so suspension movement suffers more when rear braking than with the spectral's horst rear.
It's pretty much the main reason I didn't buy a Commie

Smaller (shorter) Eebs are Waaaay more nimble than large/long ones. far more so then with normal bikes.

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

The Commie is a single pivot so suspension movement suffers more when rear braking than with the spectral's horst rear.
It's pretty much the main reason I didn't buy a Commie

Smaller (shorter) Eebs are Waaaay more nimble than large/long ones. far more so then with normal bikes.

Absolutely, I had no idea that would happen with rear braking or I would have probably avoided any bike with that layout, it took me a wee while to notice it was happening and I think it may have been on one of the step down corners at Inners where I sort of got hung up on the bike when I tried to pre load the rear suspension whilst braking, I had to get off the bike and have a look as I thought something had properly locket it out, you sort of get used to it by basically braking way before you normally would and trying not to touch it through the turns, not ideal when you are trying to guide a heavy weight through the slop lol....

 

[Gary]

I'm sort of simplifying it. Pivot placement plays a part in it too but yeah most single pivots behave this way.
You're right. You'll get used to it and fast guys don't rear brake drag much anyway, especially in corners.
I just like a really active rear end.

 

[Al-Rider]

The Commie is a single pivot so suspension movement suffers more when rear braking than with the spectral's horst rear.
It's pretty much the main reason I didn't buy a Commie

Smaller (shorter) Eebs are Waaaay more nimble than large/long ones. far more so then with normal bikes.

Could you please explain how the Spectral and the Meta Power have different suspension designs?

In my ignorance I look at both frames and I see exactly the same design with the same rotation points (horst links in both frames). I put both designs side by side with the pivots and linkage marked in red:

I would love to hear your explanation on how they're different.

 

[Gary]

In my ignorance I look at both frames and I see exactly the same design with the same rotation points (horst links in both frames).

You're clearly hallucinating.. I'd suggest putting the Orb on Spotify and having a little sit down.


Clue: the spectral:ON has a horst link. The Meta PWR doesn't.
Google what a horst link is in mtb frame design when you've come down from your trip

 

[Al-Rider]

Ok, I'm zooming on the pictures of both frames and now I see that the Commençal has the axle on the chainstay while the Spectral has the axle on the seatstay. Is that why the pivot on the Commençal cannot be considered a horst link?

 

[Gary]

Yeah man

Horst (Spectral)

single pivot (Meta)

Pay attention to where the disc caliper mounts to aswell.
Meta:

Hence the different braking characteristics.

Not all horst bikes behave exactly the same under braking though. (too longwinded to go into why here tho)

 

[LUCKYMULLEN]

Yeah man

Horst (Spectral)

single pivot (Meta)

Pay attention to where the disc caliper mounts to aswell.
Meta:

Hence the different braking characteristics.

Not all horst bikes behave exactly the same under braking though. (too longwinded to go into why here tho)

Well explained and although both may look very similar, the difference in how they behave on a ride are very different,
To give an example, I have had a couple of VPP Santa cruz bikes, the suspension layout worked brilliantly on a V10 with 10 inches of travel, it was terrible in my opinion with the Tallboy which had 110mm of travel, so much so that I had to sell the bike after a few months of use. It is all down to personal preference of course but I am a big fan of suspension systems that provide some sort of initial rearward axle path and also ones that don't suffer from brake lock.

 

[Al-Rider]

Yeah, thanks for the clarification. I always thought the Commençal had a four-bar design because the axle sits below the back pivot point. Apparently I'm not the only one making this mistake - Antonio Osuna also calls the Commie a four-bar

 

[Gary]

Well explained and although both may look very similar, the difference in how they behave on a ride are very different,
To give an example, I have had a couple of VPP Santa cruz bikes, the suspension layout worked brilliantly on a V10 with 10 inches of travel, it was terrible in my opinion with the Tallboy which had 110mm of travel, so much so that I had to sell the bike after a few months of use. It is all down to personal preference of course but I am a big fan of suspension systems that provide some sort of initial rearward axle path and also ones that don't suffer from brake lock.

That wasn't because of the tall boy having less travel. It was because Santa Cruz did a really great job figuring out the kinematics, leverage curve and axle path of the v10 (luck or judgement. I dunno?) . Whereas the rest of the ranges AP and LC etc were shit. Newer SC bikes are far better in that respect.

 

[Gary]

Yeah, thanks for the clarification. I always thought the Commençal had a four-bar design because the axle sits below the back pivot point. Apparently I'm not the only one making this mistake - Antonio Osuna also calls the Commie a four-bar

They're both 4 bar suspension designs.
One is a rocker link driven single pivot swing arm 4 bar. The other is a rocker link driven horst link 4 bar.
You can have a horst link without it being a 4 bar design. Just as not all 4 bar designs use horst links.